Fire and Ice
by photopokie
Summary: A mission that started in fire, ends in ice. All was well until things got a little out of hand, and by a little, I mean sitting in a snowy grave while the white snow turned red with blood.
1. Chapter 1

Once again, I own nothing :)

The mission was simple really. Well, simple for the team that was assigned to it anyway. Maria had originally ordered Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff to quickly get the job completed in two days tops. But of course, their previous fiasco had forced Barton to medical and by Doctors orders, was told to stay home and rest. Maria could have overruled the doctor, or simply assigned another Agent to tag along with Natasha, but there were few people Natasha could really stand to be around, let alone depend on in a life threatening situation. So Maria assigned herself, it wasn't everyday that she was able to complete a mission from the actual fighting ground rather than at her desk. Plus, she wanted to spend time with her girlfriend whom she hasn't seen in way too long.

At the moment though, it wasn't the ideal girlfriend time that she wanted, but she should have known that heavy gun fire in a now smoking and on fire abandoned mansion in the middle of greenland was Natasha's style of showing a girl a good time. "Nat, did you have to set the drapes on fire?" Maria was crouched behind a tipped over desk reloading her gun. The flames were about ten feet away from her and closing in.

"I thought you looked cold, a cozy fire for date night." Nat didn't take a moment to look at Maria as she spoke. She was behind a wall firing with perfect precision never missing a beat.

The huge house was very quickly being destroyed with bullet holes and not to mention the flames that were crawling up the tall walls to the ceiling. As Maria watched the flames go up, she realized the real reason Nat had started the fire. There was a balcony that the fire was slowly eating away at that was behind them. Men were up there with guns, but they were not able to fire on them without getting seriously burnt. It was quick thinking and great cover. This way they could focus on what was in front of them.

The only issue now was that they were slowly being trapped against the fire behind them and the guns in front of them.

"Nat! What is the plan on finishing this? I said two days tops and this is 3am on the _third_ day!" Maria was shouting from where she was crouched. "And we are trapped back here, I love the nice thought, but I think I'm starting to melt..."

"Yea I didn't think about that fire too much... as for the extraction plan, you should know that I don't _ever_ have one of those." She was standing with her back to the wall she was against while she fixed a jam in her gun. A man came out of nowhere from the other side of the wall and Natasha threw her gun at the man and knocked him out at the same time he fired his gun. She let out an irritated yelp as the bullet entered her right bicep. "Son of a bi-"

"Nat! Are you okay?" Maria duck and dove to Natasha's side examining her wound.

"Its fine Hill, nothing that wont heal. But we probably should work on that escape. That guy got passed my block-aid around the corner which means more are coming."

Maria was ripping a strand of curtain that hadn't been burnt up yet to tie around the bleeding hole in Natasha's arm. "Why do you always get hurt?" without looking away from her bandaging, Maria grabbed the knife from her belt a threw it at the man who was running towards them, hitting him square in the chest killing him.

Natasha looked at her with a smirk, "That was hot."

"Shut up and come on, we got to go." Maria grabbed Nat by her good arm and helped her up. "How much ammo do you have left?" she said as she checked her guns.

"Uhh I ran out about 40 minutes ago... that gun I threw was someone else's, mine would never jam." she said with a hint of pride that Maria didn't miss.

"I have about five bullets left and my knives." Maria sighed, noting that the gun fire had now stopped. Not good.

Natasha smiled and winked at Maria and Maria understood what she was saying, they were going to run out of here right through the middle. "I love you Maria, I'm ready when you are." Maria could hear the men slowly coming towards them. They were yelling words that Natasha probably understood. Nat had a cut on her lip and a bruise on her cheek as she stayed put waiting for Maria to give the signal. Maria leaned over and kissed the red head softly and smiled.

"Lets go home." Maria said in a demanding voice and Natasha stood straight ready for their escape.

The two charged around the corner and took the men by surprise, there were more than they thought. At least fifteen, but all were not expecting the two women to put up such a fight. _Silly._ Natasha had her Widdows bite and a few knives, and Maria was shooting the last of her gun hitting all her targets exactly where she wanted. Once she emptied her gun, she used it to knock a man unconscious.

Guns were firing all at once again. The women ran towards the main door. Smoke making it impossible to breathe or see very easily. Which is probably a good thing for cover. They were almost there when Maria had gone down. She had gotten two bullets to her leg, the first she could deal with but once the second hit, her leg gave out. Natasha was immediately on top of her firing a gun she mus have stollen from one of her victims. "Maria! Come on get up! We need to move, we are out in the open!" She kicked over another table next to the couch to make a sort of "V" shaped section of cover. The smoke was black and the fire had covered most of the mansion. Debris was falling around them which was causing a distraction for the moment.

Maria managed to move to a crouched position and tested weight on her leg. It was going to be rough, but she could do it. "Come on Maria, grab my shoulder, we are getting out of this!" That snapped Maria out of her trance and grabbed Natasha by the shoulder and she hoisted her up. "Ready?"

"Yea lets go." Maria could barely talk because every breath was filled with smoke. Nat shoved her to the side and they had barely missed being crushed by flaming ceiling. But Natasha had managed to get Maria back to her feet.

Men started to fall back in order no to be caught in the fire which had now covered about 98% of the room they were in. It was amazing how fast old wood catches on fire.

They made it to the over sized door and managed to exit the building. There were only a few men that were still alive and they were rushing to escape. Natasha gave a weak laugh as they breathed in the rush of fresh air. But they couldn't relish in their victory for long because they needed to get far away from this building.

Maria could hardly walk let alone run, and she cursed herself for feeling so weak from two bullets in the leg. She had had worse. But Nat insisted on moving quickly, it was snowing outside and they were leaving a very obvious trail of foot prints and blood. "Can we call for pick up now?" Nat had said quietly. Still holding most of Maria's weight. Maria almost didn't her her.

"We have to get just passed those trees. There is a clearing where the jet can land without taking fire." the snow was almost too much to handle after being so hot in that house.

Once they reached the edge of the treeline, Natasha slowed her pace, the trees provided a lot of cover and it didn't seem like anyone was following them. "You okay? I think your'e getting heavier." Natasha said, it almost sounded like a joke, if what she had said wasn't true. Maria felt horrible from blood loss and dizzy from inhaling the smoke way too much. Not hearing a response, she said, "I think we should stop. I need a breather too."

She stopped next to a tree and was looking at Maria's leg. Sure enough, there were three rather large holes in her leg. One from the bullet passing through her thigh which caused two holes, and the third being that the bullet was most likely lodged in her leg just inches from the first. Looking her over more, Natasha had found another bullet wound in her shoulder and a graze on her forearm. There was also a red looking burn on her forehead. "Jeez Maria. You are banged up." Maria gave a small laugh which made Natasha laugh too, then cough wildly.

"You okay there? You sound like you smoked 3 packs of cigarettes in ten minutes."Maria attempted a joke, but her humor turned to concern when Natasha had finally stopped coughing and there was blood on her lips and her girlfriend had a look of pain on her face. "Nat? Hey look at me." Maria reached out and grabbed the back of Natasha's neck to force eye contact.

"I'm fine, just smoke. Come on we are almost there." Natasha went to stand up but was forced back down by Maria who still had her hand on her. Maria pulled Nat's jacket back to reveal two wounds, one was a bullet in her upper chest that entered her back and exited her chest. The other was a knife wound in the left side of her stomach. Both bleeding profusely.

"Oh my God Natasha, why didn't you say anything? You could have died!" Maria was applying pressure to the cut on her stomach and Natasha let out a small groan of pain and another cough. "You have internal bleeding you moron!"

"You don't look too hot yourself." Natasha said with her smirk. "Thats a lie, you actually look very hot when your'e covered in soot and blood... My kind of girl."

Again, Maria wanted to laugh, but she knew Natasha, she had seen her talk like this. With her eyes fluttering, her terrible excuse of flirting and trying to make light of a situation. It was bad. Very bad. When Natasha got like this, it means she knows how bad it is and shes trying not to let Maria worry. But it wasn't working anymore.

Maria had lost a lot of blood, and with her leg and shoulder compromised, she wasn't sure if she could carry Natasha the rest of the way. But she had to try.

"Come on, I'm getting you to the jet. You better not die." Maria forced herself up and supported Natasha which acted as a support for herself too.

Going from a crouching position to standing did not sit well with either of them. Especially Natasha who had blood coming from her lungs or stomach with a rough round of coughing. But they both made their way through the dark woods. Maria took her communicator out of her pocket and signaled for evac. Hopefully they will be there by the time they reach the clearing.

Natasha had grown quiet and walked a little more sluggishly that before. "How are you doing Nat?"

Maria needed to hear the woman speak something.

"Thinking about us being in snowy greenland with no weapons and no evac jet." Natasha's voice sounded wet and ragged. "Isn't it funny that its called Greenland and its green? And like Iceland is super gr-cough-icey."

"I think your'e turned around babe. We are in Greenland... look around, what do you see?"

Natasha dropped her head to look at the ground they were walking on. "Blood." She said with no emotion. "Red blood. Reminds me of Russia. Red- cough- Red Ro- cough- om."

Maria was starting to fade while she listened to her girlfriend ramble when the woman she was holding dropped from her side into the snow. "Natasha!" She dropped too, seeing the snow beneath them both turn a shade of crimson. They both had lost too much blood, and they were both near ammonia."Nat, babe, come on, wake up we need to keep going." She turned Natasha's face so it wasn't all the way in the snow. It was pale. Almost the color of the snow. It made the wet blood on her lips stand out even more than before. How did she even have any left to bleed?

Maria tried and failed to drag her girlfriend the rest of the way, but her shoulder and leg would not allow it. That and the woman had practically gained 100 extra pounds because of the snow and blood that clung to them both. Maria sat in defeat and gathered Natasha in her arms. They were at least a little covered by the pine tree that blocked the wind and snow. She brushed the wet red hair from Nat's pale face. "I'm sorry Nat, I love you." And she kissed her girlfriend on her cracked and bloodied lips. And within minutes the icy world around them went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Once again, I own nothing.

Maria had just finished with her surgery which didn't last very long. They just needed to extract the bullet in her leg and patch it up. Her shoulder was broken, but nothing some stitches and a splint wouldn't fix. She was a little stoned off the drugs they had given her, but she was awake as the nurses were fixing up the splint for her arm and bandaging the burn in her forehead.

There was a knock at the door and Clint stuck his head in to see Maria. "Hey, How are you feeling?"

"A little loopy, but Im okay. How is Nat? She didn't look okay when I last remember seeing her." Even on drugs, Maria sounded very alert and absolutely terrified for her Girlfriend. "No one is telling me anything. She had lost so much blood Clint."

Clint was quiet and looking down at the ground. He look tired, like his orders to rest went ignored.

"Clint?" Tears started to form at the brim of her eyes. "Please tell me shes not..." She couldn't finish her sentence.

"I-I don't know Maria, they brought you both in and it didn't look good. I thought you both were dead, they haven't told me anything about her, they barely told me that you were alive and awake after your surgery. I'm not family, so they won't tell me shit." Clint rubbed his red eyes holding back tears. "I'm happy you're okay though. Now I can focus on worrying about Nat." he walked over and gave Maria a gentle hug who started sobbing in his embrace.

"I tried to carry her further but I couldn't, my leg and shoulder gave out... I should have tried harder, if she didn't make it Clint the-"

"Maria don't blame yourself for this, it was a terrible mission, I know Nat wouldn't want anyone else there with her."

They sat in silence for a moment just hugging each other when they heard loudly, "Code blue in medical, room 86. Code blue in medical, room 86." They looked wide eyed at each other.

"What's a code blue?" Clint asked.

"Patient is missing from the med bay." Maria looked confused.

"Nat?"

"Can't be, you said she was in surgery a little while ago, even if they were done, then she would still be knock-" Maria stood a little too frantically, "The nurses here don't have access to personal file, which means they don't know about Natasha's ability to flush out drugs way quicker than the average person." Clint grabbed her to steady her while she pushed the nurse away from her.

"Where is she going?"

"To find me."

Natasha woke in a white room. At first she thought she was still in the snow. She felt cold too. She was super sore and she wanted to go home. She looked around and saw no nurses or anyone in her room so she decided to let herself out, despite the injuries, if they didn't have her in a drug induced coma, it probably meant she wasn't going to die. And besides, she needed to make sure Maria was okay. She took off the tubes and stickers that were stuck to her and alarms immediately started blaring, but she quickly silenced them with a swift yank of the cords. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and tested her strength. It wouldn't be easy, but she would do what she had to do.

Her whole body protested against the movement. But she used the IV pole, minus the bags of medication to help stabilize herself. She walked out of the door of her room and recognized that she was on the triskeleton. So she decided to go find Hill, but of course a nurse gently stopped her by placing her hand on her arm. "What in the world are you doing awake? And walking? You need to be resting, you just got out of surgery."

"Look lady, if you want to keep that hand, you will never touch me again." Nat wouldn't dare do something to harm this innocent woman of course, but she just didn't have the time to deal with another road block. It worked because the nurse immediately let go of Natasha and look like fainting at the realization of who she was talking to. "Where is Commander Hill."

The lady looked around scared, "I'm not sure, they had to take you both back for emergency surgery as soon as they found you guys. You were both almost dead."

"What area of the med bay. Ill wait for her there."

"Look Agent Romanoff, I really think you should rest, you just got out of a four hour surgery two hours ago, you should not even be awake yet..." the nurse did seem pretty confused on why Natasha was awake, she must not have known about the Red Room enhancements. If you want to keep Natasha Romanoff down with drugs, its best to use 4x the usual amount. Which is probably why Natasha felt so horribly.

Her lungs hurt to breathe, her stomach and chest were tightly stitched up and throbbing. She could feel exactly where the knife entered and how deep it had gone, let alone where the bullet had punctured her lung. She could still taste the coppery taste of blood in the back of her throat. She really shouldn't be up.

But Maria. She didn't know where she was or if she was okay. The last thing Natasha had remembered was Maria having to help carry her to the jet. But Maria was injured too, badly. How did she make it all the way there after Natasha had passed out? She needed to find her girlfriend.

Realizing that the nurse was not going to give her any information, she decided to find Maria on her own. As soon as the nurse turned to answer a question, Natasha was gone.

A moment later she heard the nurse she was talking to over the loud speaker, "Code blue in medical, room 86. Code blue in medical, room 86." Natasha just smirked as she slowly escaped the med bay for the thousandth time as an Agent.

She roamed the many halls that were made of the medical bay. She peeked her head through windows of operating rooms and behind curtains. Of course being sneaky can get you so far when you're in a god awful hospital gown. She had been spotted about 5 times before she gave up on the fact that Maria was in the medical bay altogether. She must be in a recovery room somewhere.

Maria and clint walked down to the med bay in search of Natasha. There was clear signs she was there, but no Natasha, which meant she was still wandering around this he air craft. "Excuse me, do you know where Agent Natasha Romanoff I being held?" Maria asked a nurse.

"Oh that Agent always causes trouble here, she took off agai- Oh Commander, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were uhm. Asking." She was awkwardly standing there, not wanting to admit she had lost a patient.

"Well? Where is she!?" Hill sounded more stern than she meant to towards the nurse, but she needed to see if Nat was truly okay.

"Sorry Sir, She came out of surgery a little while ago, and she woke up way earlier than we expected. She undid her IV and medication bags while canceling the alarms. I tried stopping her but she said she needed to find her, I looked away for one second and she was gone, she was standing right in front of me!" She looked flush and horrified. "Am I fired?"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you not to turn your back on a spider Mrs jones?" Maria glared at the woman for good measure, further terrifying the young nurse. "And no, but do not let this happen again."

The woman physically relaxed as Maria and Clint turned and walked away from her.

"We should split up. You go to all the places you know Nat would go and I'll go where I think she would go." Maria offered.

"Maria, you can hardly walk, I'll help you look for her with you."

"I'm fine Clint, now go on, take the East side of the triskelton and ill take the West. If you find her you are to report to me and only me unless she needs medical again. In that case still contact me first."

"But-"

"Thats an order."

Clint looked tied. "Yes Sir."

Maria set off with a destination she hoped was correct.

Natasha looked everywhere but no Maria. She didn't know if that was a good thing or not... Her body hurt to say the least, and on top of the pain, she tore her stitches in her stomach so she was bleeding again. _Great._

After about an hour of wandering, she decided to head towards Maria's office, if she was ok, then she would already be trying to bark orders and take back control of her ship. Typical Maria.

She walked slowly, her hospital outfit she wore was the kind that reminded her of being in a prison. Pale green pants with a matching shirt that itched like hell and made it almost impossible to be sneaky in. But she was Black Widdow, and she could manage.

She rounded the corner of the hall that led to Commander Hill's office. She tried to open the door, finding that it was locked. Natasha easily bypassed the security system and opened it by rewiring the hand sensor and quietly walked in. "Maria?" Her chest and stomach made it harder to speak now that all the medication was most likely gone out of her system. Her voice was hoarse and she was starting to sweat from too much walking too soon. There was no answer.

She turned to the couch that sat next to Maria's desk which was covered in unfinished paperwork. It was familiar and the room smelled like Maria. She sat on the couch and she was immediately more relaxed than she ever could have been in that hospital bed. The couch was placed in the office especially for Natasha for when she didn't feel like being alone or for times such as now when she was running from the Triskeleton nurses.

Many nights were spent here. Maria never was much for conversation so more times than not, they sat in comfortable silence. Maria usually had a coffee or sweet treat waiting for Natasha to stumble in. One time Maria had a glass of scotch sitting on her desk half empty after a particularly rough day at the office when Nat had came in refusing medical attention. She had taken a few blows to her face which made a black eye, split lip and a handful of bruises. Nat had swung open the door and Maria had hardly jumped. Nat had her own bottle of liquid dangling from her hand. She quietly walked to the couch and fell onto it face first earning her a small groan. Maria sighed, stopping her typing and highlighting to check on the woman who was nearly unconscious in her office.

As Maria examined the worst of the injuries, dabbing at them with an ice pack and rambled on and on asking about what had happened. Natasha had just giggled and took another swig of her vodka which was nearly gone. Natasha thought it was cute and a little confusing why Maria cared so much about her being safe.

Both women were a little drunk as they sat together on the couch when Maria had bent down to kiss the red head. Natasha was shocked, but the alcohol had given them both courage they didn't think they had in them and Natasha practically threw herself at Maria, losing the bottle somewhere under the couch.

Natasha laughed at the memory that played in her mind. That was the first time they realized they had feelings for each other that the other also had. Nat sunk down on the couch further and reached her hand under the couch and smile as she felt the familiar cold touch of a bottle. She picked it up to find there was just enough left to help with the pain, so she knocked it back.

"Ahem..." The noise startled the spy and she cursed herself for being so wrapped up in her drink rather than her surroundings. She had just finished the last drop before se dropped the bottle again.

"Maria! I've been looking for you!" Nat tried to get up to greet the woman who was standing cross armed in the doorway. She stood a little to quickly and started to wobble, but Maria was there in a flash.

"You've been looking for me? Nat I've been going crazy wandering this whole place looking for you, why didn't you stay in bed?" Maria guided her back to the couch.

Nat laughed at the idea of history repeating itself. "Yea. I needed to make sure you were okay, I started thinking... I couldn't find you anywhere and no one was telling me anything." The alcohol was already making her feel warm, but instantly sick. Maria realized what was about to happen and grabbed a trash can just in time.

Throwing up hurt, almost as much as the initial stab and bullet wound. Her stomach was tightening in ways she never knew it could. Maria held her hair back and supported her while she emptied the vodka from her system along with blood.

"Geez Nat, okay, I'm taking you back to medical. And this time you are staying there." Maria had called Clint as soon as she realized Nat was in her office, so he would be there soon. Nat stood up with the help of her girlfriend, and Maria could see the small line of blood coming from the torn stitches in Natasha's stomach and the small stain it left on her couch. "You will never stop ruining my things with your blood will you." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Tryin to liven the place up a bit." Natasha said with a smirk. "How is your leg? And shoulder?" She stopped moving so she could look Maria in the eye to search for any signs she would be hiding the truth.

"I'm okay Nat, honest. You saved my life out there. Thank you." And Maria gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Am I interrupting something?" Clint was standing with his shoulder against the door frame smirking at the two.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had to go home and cry yourself to sleep or something." Natasha instantly turned back to her old teasing self once she saw Clint.

"I heard you were trying to kill yourself with Hill's help so I thought I'd come stop you, you know. For the kids. How would I break the news to them?" Clint walked over and gave them both a soft hug. "But really though, you look like shit Nat."

"I do no-" Natasha looked furrious.

"Yes you do, Clint I need you to help her back to the med bay, she broke a few stitches." Maria said as she started pushing Nat towards the door. She turned her back for only a second before she heard awkward shuffling and grunting coming from behind her. When she turned around she saw Clint and Natasha practically wrestling, but with Nat just out of surgery and Clint recovering still from his mission, it just looked pathetic. "What are you two doing?!"

"I was helping her to the med bay." Clint was laughing.

"He was trying to carry me!" Natasha punched him which resulted in an "ouch" from both of them.

Maria pinched the brim of her nose trying to hold back a smile. "Barton, you know she would rather die than be carried back to the medical ward." He looked at her sheepishly. "Come on, we are walking. All of us. _Walking._ "

The nurses were going stir crazy at the sight of Natasha. Maria quickly told them about the stitches and the blood that was thrown up, and as a precaution, they decided to double check Natasha's stomach and lungs. Because she was so quickly out of surgery, they decided to open her back up. Which was probably the best decision, because there were some internal bleeding once again.

Natasha woke up a couple hours after returning to her recovery room, once again way too soon. But she didn't feel the need to take off and run because there was a brunette sitting on a reclining chair next to her sound asleep. "Murra..."

It was quiet, but Maria jolted awake and was alert as if she was never asleep. "Hey you." She reached out and grabbed Nat's hand. "How you feeling?"

"Terrible." Her words felt odd and she couldn't focus very well. "I'm drugged?" Natasha looked confused with blurry eyes towards Maria.

Maria let out a laugh, "Yes, they didn't want you running again."

"Hmm... Hey Murra." Natasha's eyes were starting to close again. Maria didn't respond, but Natasha knew she was listening. "Your office needs more Vodka." At that she opened one eye and raised one of her eye brows.

Maria laughed and said, "You got it."


End file.
